Though Labour is split, unity may now be easier than it looks | Polly Toynbee

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Affection for Corbyn remains but on the ground party members have seen why people didn’t back him

The postmortem was grim. In the room, leading Labour MPs, recent party staffers and assorted Labour figures of long experience pored over the entrails exposed by the high priests of polling and academia. Pointers for the future lie in this gruesome raking over of the details. Too many in Labour give only token nods to the cataclysmic abyss that has opened up between the party and the voters out there.

To win, Labour needs 60% more MPs, another 124 seats: that’s never been done by any party ever. According to Greg Cook, the former Labour head of political strategy, among those 124 hypothetically “most winnable” seats are an improbable 16 from the SNP and two from Plaid Cymru. Failing that, if all gains must come from Tories, Labour must seize North East Somerset, held by Jacob Rees-Mogg with more than 50% of the vote. Gerrymandering Tory plans for boundary changes will take at least 1% off Labour’s vote.

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